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Like a lot of folks who move to San Antonio from elsewhere, one of the first things my wife and I did upon arriving here in 1985 from New York was to look for places where we could buy the same foods we'd grown up eating: pasta, Italian tomatoes, sausage, fine olive oils, that sort of thing.

Back then, however, the only real Italian market in town was the now-closed Paletta's Imported Foods. But the selection there was limited. The Italian restaurant everyone pointed us to was Paesanos. But while their signature dish, Shrimp Paesano was good, it was — basically — shrimp scampi.

Eventually whenever anyone asked me — the resident Italian — where I went for good pizza, I'd say, “New York.”

My, how things have changed.

Today, San Antonians enjoy an (almost) unlimited number of food options, thanks to the culinary programs at the CIA, the Art Institute of San Antonio and St. Philip's College. Stores such as Central Market and Whole Foods and wholesale markets including Tim's Oriental & Seafood Market, Ali Baba International Food Market, Groomer Seafood and Gaucho Gourmet all sell foods from around the world that, not very long ago, were simply not available in these parts.

There's also a growing food truck culture that allows under-capitalized chefs with a dream the opportunity to try out new culinary concepts (see today's lead story on Page H1). And almost every day of the week there's a farmers market somewhere selling fresh produce and specialty goods.

Now I'm not saying San Antonio can yet compete with such food-obsessed cities as New Orleans, New York and San Francisco. Far from it. But we can, at least, dream of someday doing so.

Consider two examples why that might happen.

At Bohanan's on East Houston Street, head chef Heather Nañez said it used to take her a month to go through 20 Akaushi steaks. Now she often sells that many of the Texas-raised, Japanese-style steaks in a night. And, at $100 a pop.

It's not just tourists who are ordering. Out-of-towners may fill tables in the upstairs dining room, but the downstairs restaurant and bar attracts plenty of locals dining on dishes made from once-unknown ingredients such as Kurobuta bacon, aleppo pepper and dry salami made from mangalitsa, a breed of pig native to Hungary.

“San Antonio is no longer just a taco town,” said Nañez , a Laredo native who has been with Bohanan's since shortly after it opened 11 years ago. “But if you want tacos, you can get a great taco, too.”

Over at Gaucho Gourmet, co-owner Luciano Ciorciari remembers putting labels on packages of ravioli he was preparing to deliver to Paletta's. Back then, his father ran the business and they carried only about 150-200 products. And most of these were sold via the Internet. The majority of their prosciutto, for example, was destined for Puerto Rico. Today, the bustling warehouse he and his brother Juan Manuel run in the shadow of the airport carries 2,000 items, and that number is growing quickly.

While their father carried five types of salami, today they sell 60. Not long ago, and at chef Bruce Auden's request, they brought in a few pounds of pepperoni from a highly regarded artisanal meat purveyor in New Jersey. Auden wanted it as a topping for his pizza. Eventually so did a lot of other chefs, and today they sell 500 to 700 pounds a week, despite the fact that it costs three times the price of traditional pepperoni.

“The chefs don't worry about the cost; they want the best,” explained Luciano.

That kind of demand allows the Ciorciari brothers to source and sell such gourmet goods as fine semi-dry tomatoes from Marche in central Italy, regional olive oils from Spain and a chicken jalapeño sausage created by celebrity chef Bobby Flay.

No surprise then, that getting good pizza no longer requires first buying an airplane ticket.